In a wide-ranging discussion on stage at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona on Monday, Google senior vice president Sundar Pichai offered his views on lots of issues at the heart of the mobile telecommunications industry.

Google has confirmed for the first time that it plans to offer connectivity directly to mobile users in the U.S., but a senior executive downplayed the competition it would be to major U.S. cellular carriers.

What do you use a smartphone for most? For its data, of course. So we set out for the second year in a row to find out which mobile service provider gives you the most comprehensive and reliable data network coverage, the fastest upload and download speeds, and overall, the most bang for the buck.

Anyone who dreads hearing one end of a loud phone call all the way from Anchorage to Miami, take heart: The plan to allow cellphones on planes could fail in more ways than an overbooked flight at a snowbound airport on Christmas Eve.

Nokia's is rebooting its U.S. Windows Phone push with the arrival of the low-cost Lumia 521 on T-Mobile and Lumia 928 for Verizon Wireless, but increasing sales to meaningful volumes in the very competitive U.S. market will not be easy.

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